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Narrative Epic and New Media: the Totalizing Spaces of Postmodernity in the Wire, Batman, and the Legend of Zelda

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Narrative Epic and New Media: the Totalizing Spaces of Postmodernity in the Wire, Batman, and the Legend of Zelda Western University Scholarship@Western Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository 8-17-2015 12:00 AM Narrative Epic and New Media: The Totalizing Spaces of Postmodernity in The Wire, Batman, and The Legend of Zelda Luke Arnott The University of Western Ontario Supervisor Nick Dyer-Witheford The University of Western Ontario Graduate Program in Media Studies A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree in Doctor of Philosophy © Luke Arnott 2015 Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd Part of the Other Film and Media Studies Commons Recommended Citation Arnott, Luke, "Narrative Epic and New Media: The Totalizing Spaces of Postmodernity in The Wire, Batman, and The Legend of Zelda" (2015). Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository. 3000. https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/3000 This Dissertation/Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarship@Western. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository by an authorized administrator of Scholarship@Western. For more information, please contact [email protected]. NARRATIVE EPIC AND NEW MEDIA: THE TOTALIZING SPACES OF POSTMODERNITY IN THE WIRE, BATMAN, AND THE LEGEND OF ZELDA (Thesis format: Monograph) by Luke Arnott Graduate Program in Media Studies A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy The School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies The University of Western Ontario London, Ontario, Canada © Luke Arnott 2015 Abstract Narrative Epic and New Media investigates why epic narratives have a renewed significance in contemporary culture, showing that new media epics model the postmodern world in the same way that ancient epics once modelled theirs. It demonstrates how the epic genre recurs across different cultures and subcultures, even as each instantiation of the epic remains unique to its particular society. The dissertation draws upon genre theory from critical discourse analysis and from observations made by various critics about the epic’s status as a literary “super-genre,” which encompasses as many other kinds of narrative as it can. It extends genre theory to explain how works of epic scope emerge from new media as well. The dissertation develops a framework for defining epics that balances textual analysis with attention to the social processes of narrative representation, production, and reception. This model outlines the formal continuities of the epic’s field of cultural production while accounting for historical change and differing cultural contexts. The following texts are analysed in depth: the HBO drama The Wire (2002–2008); works adapted from Batman comics, specifically the Dark Knight film trilogy (2005–2012) and the Batman: Arkham video game series (2009–2015); and Nintendo’s Legend of Zelda video game series (1986-2013). Related books, films, comics, and video games furnish supporting evidence, while the reception of these works is gauged in journalism and scholarship, as well as in popular sources (blog postings, fan fictions, etc.). After showing how The Wire, Batman, and Zelda relate to their cultural contexts as epics, Narrative Epic and New Media addresses the implications for epic theory in light of current cultural production. In particular, The Wire, Batman, and Zelda all demonstrate the new understanding of space and cognitive mapping that critics have seen as essential to theories of postmodernity, especially those that examine how the features of fictional narratives model lived experience in society. The dissertation ends with an argument in favour of a more “flexible” formalism, which can better account for the disembedding of generic forms. ii Keywords Epic, Genre theory, Postmodernism, The Wire, Batman, The Dark Knight, The Legend of Zelda, Nintendo, Comic Books, Video games, David Simon, Christopher Nolan, Shigeru Miyamoto iii Table of Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................................... ii Table of Contents ............................................................................................................... iv List of Figures ..................................................................................................................... vi Introduction ...................................................................................................................... vii Chapter 1 ............................................................................................................................. 1 1 The Epic .......................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 A Brief Sketch of Epic Criticism ............................................................................. 2 1.2 Epic Form and Historical Context ......................................................................... 11 1.3 Toward a Genre Theory of Epic ............................................................................ 14 1.4 Four Levels of the Epic’s Symbolic Content ........................................................ 17 Chapter 2 ........................................................................................................................... 22 2 The Wire ........................................................................................................................ 22 2.1 The Wire as Epos ................................................................................................... 23 2.2 The Mythos of The Wire ........................................................................................ 30 2.3 The Ethos of The Wire ........................................................................................... 37 2.4 The Wire and Its Cosmos I: Audiences ................................................................. 46 2.5 The Wire and Its Cosmos II: Postmodern Space ................................................... 55 Chapter 3 ........................................................................................................................... 68 3 The Dark Knight Trilogy .............................................................................................. 68 3.1 The Dark Knight Trilogy as Epos ......................................................................... 69 3.2 The Batman Mythos and the Dark Knight Trilogy ............................................... 77 3.3 Ethos: One Dark Knight, Many Batmen ............................................................... 86 3.4 The Dark Knight Trilogy and Its Cosmos I: Terror and Audiences ...................... 98 3.5 The Dark Knight Trilogy and Its Cosmos II: The Space of Gotham .................. 110 Chapter 4 ......................................................................................................................... 121 4 The Legend of Zelda ................................................................................................... 121 4.1 Preamble: Games, Storytelling, and Space .......................................................... 122 4.2 The Legend of Zelda as Epos ............................................................................... 127 4.3 Mythos: Legends of Zelda ................................................................................... 142 4.4 Ethos: The Borders of Hyrule .............................................................................. 154 4.5 Cosmos I: The Hermeneutics of Zelda ................................................................ 161 4.6 Cosmos II: The Hero of Space-Time ................................................................... 170 Chapter 5 ......................................................................................................................... 178 5 Conclusions: Flexible Formalism ............................................................................... 178 5.1 A Review of the Framework of Epic Theory ...................................................... 180 5.2 Continuities of the Epic in Postmodernity ........................................................... 183 5.3 “Flexible” Formalism .......................................................................................... 187 5.4 Limitations of the Study and Theory ................................................................... 197 Bibliography .................................................................................................................... 203 Curriculum Vitae ............................................................................................................. 221 v List of Figures Figure 1. Levels of Genre. ....................................................................................................... 15 Figure 2. Levels of the Epic's Symbolic Content. ................................................................... 17 Figure 3. Images of Baltimore Coach Lamps. ......................................................................... 57 Figure 4. Still From The Wire (2.5). ........................................................................................ 58 Figure 5. Map of West Baltimore Drug Corners. .................................................................... 59 Figure 6. The Wire Tour Map. ............................................................................................... 61 Figure 7. Obama "Socialism" Poster. ...................................................................................
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